The Titirangi Years, 1953 – 1959: Colin McCahon

In what is now known as the French Bay House in the West Auckland suburb of Titirangi, painter Colin McCahon produced some of his most consequential works. With the shift from the South Island to Auckland with his family in 1953 came a new direction in his painting and the seven years spent here encompassed the watershed of his career, both as the chronological midpoint and in terms of his evolution as an artist.

Faced with the concerns and challenges of painting a new landscape, significantly different to that of his Otago, Nelson and Canterbury subjects, McCahon experimented with the fresh visual stimuli of his new environment and produced some of his most ground breaking works.

The exhibition The Titirangi Years, 1953 - 1959 includes works from the Kauri, French Bay and Titirangi series' each of which take their genesis in the Titirangi years.